Youngsters in Dhoni’s ancestral village want stadium to fulfil dream
He is a namesake of India’s ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. He lives in Almora’s Lawali, Dhoni’s ancestral village. And he has a dream of becoming like Mahi ‘dajyu’ – a term used to address the elder brother in Kumaon hills.
But this dream of the Class 10 student, like many others, faces a hurdle: There is no proper ground in the area to play cricket. “Ham chahate hain ki gaon mein ek stadium bane jahan sabhi khel saken (We want a stadium in the village where everyone can play),” says the teenager.
Every youngster in Lawali, which has a population of about 250 people, follows cricket religiously, and almost all of them want to be as successful a cricketer as Dhoni.
Youngsters have flattened agricultural fields where they play cricket. Such is the enthusiasm for cricket among the locals that they recently approached the assembly speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal and offered land for the stadium.
“We respect the sentiments, but as of now government does not have fund to build a stadium. But I have given nod to convert a field into small stadium in Dhoni’s name in a neighbouring village,” Kunjwal told HT.
Lawali, nearly 400 km from the state capital, is buzzing with excitement after the release of MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, which is based on the life of the cricketing star.
The village celebrates whenever Mahi, as Dhoni is known by his fans, hits the national spotlight. This time they are talking about the film. Though Mahi was born and raised in Jharkhand, he maintains connect with the ancestral village, where his paternal uncle Ganpath Dhoni, aunt and cousins still live.
Dhoni’s cousin Hayat Singh, who has watched the biopic’s trailer on satellite TV, says he will go to Haldwani this week to watch the movie.
Mahi last came to the village in 2004. Though his parents and elder brother, Narendra, are settled in Ranchi, they regularly visit Lawali. Dhoni’s father left the village in the ‘70s after he got a job with Ranchi steel factory.
“We can understand Mahi dajyu is preoccupied. He is a big name for rest of the world but for us he remains our brother who is down to earth,” Hayat told HT over phone.
Mahi shares a strong bonding with Uttarakhand. His wife Sakshi is from Dehradun. The village celebrated in 2010 when Mahi tied knot with Sakshi.